Harvesting human body heat in Sweden

Ever noticed how warm it gets when you’re in a closed-in space with a lot of people? Yeah, could be anxiety from claustrophobia… but, more likely, you’re noticing how much heat our bodies give off in the course of normal events. It turns out that heat can be harvested with century-old technology… and create significant energy savings.

Last month, the BBC took note of property management company Jernhusen‘s efforts to make use of body heat coming from commuters in Stockholm’s Central Station. The idea is pretty simple: the company installed heat exchangers in the ventilation system of the station, uses that heat to warm water, and then pipes the water across the street to another building. By using the excess heat, the recipients of all that warmth have been able to cut their energy costs by 25%.

Yes, the system itself is fairly expensive, but when gas and heating prices stay high, the economics work… and, of course, the heat source itself costs nothing.

Interested in the nuts and bolts? Check out the video above… and let you imagination run wild on where else such a set-up might prove feasible.